Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

This is a girl’s meisen silk kimono which dates to the early 20th century.  On the emerald green ground is shown a fanciful pattern of interlocking Genji-guruma or Genji wheels, a popular motif based on a Heian Period (794-1185) ox drawn carriage, a reference to the motif-rich and much alluded to 11th century novel by Murasaki Shikibu,  The Tale of Genji.

…and many thanks to all of you who are regular and intermittent visitors to this blog.  It’s really enjoyable writing these posts and please do stay tuned for more in 2010.

A client stopped by to look at my collection of ralli quilts from Sindh, a region that straddles the Pakistan/India border.  I pulled out all the quilts so we could look at them, and they ended up in a big pile–and I thought this haphazard arrangement showed off their diverse colors and patterns really nicely.

These rallis all happen to be bedcovers, but using the same technique of piecing and quilting, the ladies of Sindh would also fashion bags, saddle blankets and other household items.

The photos shown on this post show the proper fronts of the rallis, which are always based on a kind of repeat-pattern geometric design using scraps of  cotton cloth as the medium.  Very often, however, the backs of rallis employ a more expressionistic and less formalized piecing of repurposed cloth— and the backs are generally more to my liking.

Notice the tremendous amount of piecing, applique work and hand stitching that make up each of these rallis.

This Wednesday, on my website, I’ll be offering one of these beauties for sale.  I selected to show a ralli with a beautifully composed “front” and a back that is stylistically very different from the formalized design of the front.

Stay tuned.